Enterprise Astronomy
~Deep Space Images by Annie Morris~
I just spent a week down at Olly Penrice's astronomy mecca in Southern France. Crazy me drove down with all of my gear (the whole trip both ways and what driving we did during the day down there totaled 2100 miles!) and much to Olly's amusement set up my "portable" kit on his pad, desktop computer and all.
It was an absolutely gorgeous week and I got somewhere around 46.5 hrs of data total on 5 separate targets plus a few Milky Way shots with my DSLR on a tripod as I sat and watched the meteor shower and enjoyed the clear summer evenings. I do have some meteor widefields I have yet to stack and process as well as some more Milky Way shots, but here is the one I have done that I like the most.
I started on vdb126 as I love dark nebula regions and rarely image them. I did this for part of the first night and then moved on. It needed (and still does) some more data, but I had other priorities for most of the imaging time and just wanted something to show for this region.
Over the next 6 nights I worked on the remaining targets depending on where they were along the southern horizon, the slowly increasing moon, and how much data I had gotten on them yet. Here are the images I got over the week. I have a little more integrating and work to do on a few of them, but they are mostly processed.
Helix Nebula (LHaRGB):
Cocoon Nebula (LHaRGB):
Trifid Nebula (LRGB):
NGC 6559 (LRGB):
All were taken with my Orion EON80ED scope, Atik 314L+ camera, and Astronomik Filters while being piggybacked on my CPC800XLT on a wedge. More integration time details are available on my website although some of the time on the Helix I have stacked with a few other subs I got at a star party a while back which added to the 46.5 hour total from this week by 4 hrs making 50.5hrs for these 5 images. Could not have been a more perfect astrophotography week by my standards and it was nice to get the scope out and running again as it has just been collecting dust for the past 5 months or so as other things have taken priority. Well worth the year it took to book, plan, and actually get down to these amazing dark skies for a whole week of nothing but astrophotography by night and touring around the wonderful little towns in the area, hiking, and shopping during the day!
I have been incredibly busy since Christmas and unfortunately forgot to make any posts as a result. I have done some astrophotography and enjoyed the few clear nights England provided. Here are a few of the objects I imaged over the last few months:
vdb14 was a bit of a challenge for me. It is a faint bit of nebulosity in the constellation Camelopardalis. You don't see many images of it so I wasn't quite sure the orientation the camera should be in initially but that was sorted after one sub. The main problem is my scope/image train does not necessarily like broadband emissions, and in particular the blue wavelength. I get bloated stars on all blue and Luminance frames which make processing especially difficult. This is the reason I tend to stick to narrowband images for the time being. Despite these issues, I was thrilled with how it turned out.
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vdb14 |
The all-too-familiar Horsehead Nebula. I hadn't imaged this since I first began astrophotography and thought it about time I hit it again. I wanted to get the depth and detail that Hydrogen-alpha provided but also not lose the blue reflection nebaul below the HH. As always in this region, keeping Alnitak (off frame to left) from ruining the photo is always a fun challenge. I think I managed to succeed fairly well with this final result.
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Horsehead Nebula
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I also decided I wanted to try out a few more planetary nebulas. I only got one managed with out few clear nights but it provided enough of a challenge. I shot it in narrowband so have no star colors, something which I would like to eventually remedy, but the depth and detail of the Owl Nebula itself made me happy. This is an easy nebula to have washed out and not get any of the inner detail/stars. It was a processing challenge to keep that and bring out the rarely seen outer OIII halo, but I am always up for a challenge (even if I do not always succeed). Here was the final result, although I do wish to revisit this in RGB to add some star colors and perhaps better nebula color as well.
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M97 - Owl Nebula
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M106 |
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Mars - 29 Mar 2012 |
I always wondered this, but as I didn't have a motorized filter with readable steps (until now) I wasn't able to do any testing on my filters previously. Since the moon is lovely and bright tonight killing most of my imaging plans I figured I would do some focus tests with my new Moonlite focuser. After letting the scope cool to the nice chilly evening (whilst my toes froze nice and solid as well) I ran through my Astronomik set (LRGB and Ha,SII,OIII) and not only did FocusMax's "focus" button but then dug around a few steps each way to find the best focus for each filter. Happy to say that the "focus" button on FocusMax got the focus within 1-2 steps of best focus so gotta say that I am happy to use the automated routine in the future.
Now for the results.
Filter set: Astronomik Type IIC broadband and narrowband filters
Scope: Orion EON80ED
Camera for testing: Atik 314L+
Moonlite Focuser
Filter Wheel: Atik EFW2
Camera temp: -20C
Ambient temp at time of test: 3.3C
Position at "best" focus for each filter at time of testing:
Lum: 10681
Red: 10679
Green: 10676
Blue: 10719
Ha: 10683
SII: 10686
OIII: 10683
All in all, I say that is pretty good (except for the blue filter of course, which I knew already had issues) ... All others were within 5 steps of each other with the Luminance being pretty well centered between them. I am happy to see how close to parfocal all 3 narrow bands are and how close they are to the Luminance.
With that said, I do have an Astrodon LRGB set on the way and will be interested to see how they perform (at the moment I am staying with the Astronomik NB as I have been happy with them but the Blue on my Astronomik set drives me nuts and if I am gonna change one might as well get the whole set. Once they arrive I plan on doing the same test with them as well and will post those results.
After a few more rounds of testing I will have a reliable focus offset for each filter so I can add that to my automated routine, which should make automated routines easier to setup.
Addition: I got out today and pulled out the caliper to do some measuring.
On my system, the Moonlite Focuser moves 16 microns/step (determined by multiple tests by moving the focuser 100, 250, 500, 1000 steps multiple times and measuring the distance moved/#steps and averaged out the #, although almost all of the measurements were right at 16 so any differences were likely user error on the caliper)
Next, some math to determine the critical focus zone (CFZ).
Formula: CFZ=4.88*λ*f ²
Where λ is the wavelength of light and f(squared) is the focal ratio of the system squared.
Note: These tests are done on my actual imaging system, not an "ideal" test setup. I find it hard to find results on average setups as "tests" are generally done on apochromatic scopes and very high-end equipment. That is why I like to share my test results on my modest equipment. These are not "scientific" and are done just as I state. I do them for others who have modest setups and would like to find results on setups similar to their own.
I have a few actions up for beta testing. I will do this occasionally as I am developing some for Annie's Astro Actions or just for my own personal use in processing (which is how these came about). I am considering adding them to the action set, but for now they are up for free for anyone willing to test them out and send me their thoughts/problems/suggestions.
In this first beta set are three actions: Hubble Palette Creation, Deconvolve, & Boost Star Color.
To read a short description of them and to download, please go to the new "Beta Action" page, coated here: http://www.eprisephoto.com/beta-actions . . . please remember to send me your notes if you download them!
Thanks!
Note: This review can be downloaded as a pdf at: http://www.eprisephoto.com/nikon-d7000.pdf
Exposure:
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M (Manual)
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Roll wheel on top left of camera
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ISO:
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400
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Press “ISO” button on left of preview screen, turn roll bar in front of shutter/on-off button
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Image Quality:
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NEF (RAW)
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MENU->Shooting Menu->Image Quality
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Shutter trigger:
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Quick-Response Remote
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Two places: Shooting Menu->Remote control mode->Quick Response Remote, Secondary roll wheel on top left of camera->remote picture
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Shutter Speed:
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BULB
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Right thumb roll bar
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